Marriage squeeze

The marriage squeeze was originally coined to illustrate different patterns of marriage of men and women in the 1960s.[1] In 2000, a new marriage squeeze was observed in the United States by African American women, who find it difficult to meet and marry desirable and eligible men.[2] According to data from dating services, African American women are the least likely to receive response from men of any race and ethnicity in the USA.[3][4] According to Newsweek, 43% of African American women between the ages of 30 and 34 have never been married.[5]

Marriage assymmetries

Racial patterns of marriage contribute to the marriage squeeze: In the United States African American men marry non-African Americans at a higher rate than do African American women.[6] This leads to there being 2.38 times more Black men marrying White women than the reverse in the United States. In the United Kingdom that assymmetry still exists but is at 1.46.[7]

Causes

There have been a variety of suggestions to explain the patterns of marriage observed:

Incarceration

As a category, African American men suffer from higher rates of incarceration, unemployment, and poor health than do their white counterparts in the United States. These conditions often make their lives unstable, and disqualify them from raising a home effectively, in effect brand them as "unmarriageable".[8] Rates of incarceration for marriage-age African American males are far higher than rates for females, further contributing to the male/female gap. As of 2002, 10.4% of all African American males between the ages of 25 and 29 were sentenced and in prison.[9] The African-American male-female disparity is highest between the ages of 25 – 29, when for every two African-American men, there are nearly three African-American women.[10]

Desire to 'Marry up'

There is a desire among educated women of all races to marry partners within or above their social and economic class;[11] when African American women restrict their marriage prospects to African American men, African American women risk either marrying below their socioeconomic class or not marrying at all as African American women consistently achieve better completion rates in higher education than African American men do.[12]

Sexually dimorphic skin tones

Skin color is a sexually dimorphic trait. Universally, females have lighter skin tones than males.[13] As such, a lighter skin tone is associated with feminity and a darker skin tone with masculinity. A consequence of this is that African males are perceived as more masculine and European females as more feminine.[14] It has been demonstrated how this could be sufficient to produce the marriage patterns observed and hence the marriage squeeze.[15]

References

  1. ↑ Akers, Donald S. (1967-06-01). "On Measuring the Marriage Squeeze". Demography 4 (2): 907–924. doi:10.2307/2060328. ISSN 0070-3370.
  2. ↑ Crowder, Kyle D.; Tolnay, Stewart E. (2000-08-01). "A New Marriage Squeeze for Black Women: The Role of Racial Intermarriage by Black Men". Journal of Marriage and Family 62 (3): 792–807. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2000.00792.x. ISSN 1741-3737.
  3. ↑ The uncomfortable racial preferences revealed by online dating
  4. ↑ How Your Race Affects The Messages You Get
  5. ↑ "The Black Gender Gap". Gene Expression. 2003-02-23. Retrieved 2008-07-15.
  6. ↑ Crowder, Kyle D.; Tolnay, Stewart E. (August 2000). "A New Marriage Squeeze for Black Women: The Role of Racial Intermarriage by Black Men". Journal of Marriage and the Family (Minneapolis, MN: National Council on Family Relations) 62 (3): 792–80. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2000.00792.x. ISSN 0022-2445. OCLC 49976459. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
  7. ↑ DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031703
  8. ↑ (Reference: Benokraitis, N. 2011. Marriage and Families: Choices and Constrainsts. Prenhall, NY.
  9. ↑ Harrison, Paige M.; Beck, Allen J. (July 2003). "Prisoners in 2002" (PDF). Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin. U. S. Department of Justice: Office of Justice Programs. Retrieved 2008-07-15.
  10. ↑ O'Connor, Vikki (February 2006). "Barriers to Marriage and Parenthood for African-American Men & Women" (PDF). Syracuse University. Retrieved 2008-07-15.
  11. ↑ Kalmijn, Matthijs (1993-09-01). "Trends in Black/White Intermarriage". Social Forces 72 (1): 119–146. doi:10.1093/sf/72.1.119. ISSN 0037-7732.
  12. ↑ Melendez, Michele M. (2004-04-25). "Fewer Women are 'Marrying up'". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 2008-07-15.
  13. ↑ Berghe, Pierre L. van den; Frost, Peter (1986-01-01). "Skin color preference, sexual dimorphism and sexual selection: A case of gene culture co‐evolution?". Ethnic and Racial Studies 9 (1): 87–113. doi:10.1080/01419870.1986.9993516. ISSN 0141-9870.
  14. ↑ Lewis, Michael B. (2011-01-01). "Who is the fairest of them all? Race, attractiveness and skin color sexual dimorphism". Personality and Individual Differences 50 (2): 159–162. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.09.018.
  15. ↑ Lewis, Michael B. (2012-02-09). "A Facial Attractiveness Account of Gender Asymmetries in Interracial Marriage". PLoS ONE 7 (2): e31703. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031703. PMC 3276508. PMID 22347504.
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